This Hank’s for You

For Crawford to grow as a fighter and develop into a marquee attraction, he needs to fight the best of the best in his division…

On Saturday, February 27, at New York’s Madison Square Garden, in a fight televised live on HBO Championship Boxing, WBO World super lightweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs), the Pride of Omaha, Nebraska, defends his title against Hank Lundy (26-5-1, 13 KOs), the perennial contender from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Crawford is a terrific fighter who needs to fight terrific fighters. It’s a pity he didn’t get a shot at the soon-to-be-retired Manny Pacquiao, presumably because HBO and friends thought a third fight with Timothy Bradley would be easier to sell. Good luck with that. The proxy war between their respective trainers, Freddie Roach and Teddy Atlas, an extra added bonus as it were, is already feeling stale.

But there are other fighters in the super lightweight division, some titleholders and some not, who would make a fight with Crawford interesting, and maybe even competitive. Adrien Broner, Viktor Postol, Ruslan Provodnikov, Mauricio Herrera, and Lucas Matthysse may have been unavailable or are being promoted by someone other than Bob Arum and Top Rank. But these are the kind of quality opponents Crawford needs to face if he wants to save face and be considered a pound-for-pound fighter.

That is not to knock Hank Lundy. He’s a good fighter. He has fast hands, reasonable power, and a sturdy chin. But he is not ranked in the top 15. Nor is he natural super lightweight, which was true of Crawford’s last opponent, Dierry Jean, as well. That worrying trend aside, Lundy has also gone 4-4 in his last eight fights, having lost to Ray Beltran in 2012, Viktor Postol in 2013, Thomas Dulorme in 2014, and Mauricio Herrera in 2015. But at least he won his last fight, a fifth round TKO over Carlos Winston Velasquez, who was 23-21-1 going in.

No promoter wants to jeopardize his investment. A perfect record means much in these imperfect times. But if Crawford is going to grow as a fighter and develop into a marquee attraction, he needs to fight the best of the best in his division, and the sooner the better.

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Actually, Crawford has been calling out bigger names. He wants Postol, but unfortunately, he’s not the one that has the final say over who is chosen for him to fight. So, don’t put the blame on him, put it on his promotional team.

Unfortunately Crawford’s biggest win to date was against a much smaller man. He has not stepped up once since you have known of him.
The only other fight that is as big of a joke as this one is Broner Vs Theopane.
This is quid pro quo in modern boxing.
The easiest path is the one taken.

I’m the son of the late Raymond griffin, pro fighter put of Arkansas,,,if anyone wants to hear my side of what happened to Irish Frankie crowford I was in Vegas my home town,,,I was around fifteen when my dad ended frankies carrier as a fighter that would of made a comeback,,,talked to his brother that acts like I was to young to remember anything,,,I worked out at Johnny’s tacos main street ring in Vegas as Frankie was going to make a come back,,,,my dad was helping him and training him as his trainer,,,,I looked up to Frankie the two years he was in training he he was angry my dad was beating on me,,,see my dad was a old crazy hot head Irish man with alot of pull,,,,to make a long story short he shot Frankie in the side and back with a forty five hollow points up close with Danny with Frankie,,,,I always liked Frankie like a father figure to me,,,,my dad ruined Frankie from the neck down he couldn’t move,,,my dad got Frankie on dms treatment and regained one arm,,,,I’m not going to go into detail but my dad ruined a good man that o really liked ,,,I’ve seen the worst things in my past that happened to Frankie and things he told me how much his kids met to him,,,yes my dad was a bad man and I’m sorry his brother said I only met him for two months is not true,,,I do have a great memory,,,,I’m sorry to his family deeply

Seems we are all in agreement.
I like Crawford but his last 3 wins have been setups. His biggest win to date was against Gamboa. Who came up in weight for that fight. So with Crawford being a natural 140lber that is 3 weight divisions over Gamboas natural.
His second best win was Beltran. (did he make weight for that?)

There is absolutely NO REASON for Crawford to be fighting Lundy.
It is nothing more than PBC standard - looks OK on paper so we can promote it. Lundys not even in the top 20. You have a belt you should only be allowed to fight fighters in the top 10.

Broner would be the biggest fight they could make right now at 140.
I think that would be a HUGE fight. Ohio Vs Nebraska.

Irish Frankie - I think the perfect fight for Crawford to take in his second outing at 140 would be Matthysse – a 140 pounder who bangs like a welterweight but doesn’t have the body strength of guys like Thurman, Porter etc. Its like FMJ’s fight with Sharmba M when he first moved to 147
Having said that I had really hoped Crawford would be doing things differently from the standard risk vs reward model. I’d hoped he was going to reach for greatness by taking on top level opposition – I’d think at 28 he should only spend the next 12 months fighting at 140 but certainly shouldn’t jump to 147 without that time – so I think either Postol or Broner would be good fights and then he could jump to 147 whilst still in his prime pre 30 years old -having said that unless the top talents at 147 start fighting each other and build some brand recognition for the division, there wont be the big fights that 147 traditionally can give us.

I don’t know beans really….but I know this much, Crawford doesn’t need any set ups or tune ups. In fact, he doesn’t need to showcase with someone like Matthysse, Provodnikov, or Herrera. Broner and Postol are more his speed at this point but I have no doubt that he would prevail with these two guys as well….but maybe not.

Looks like the same track that Wilder is on here. No problem though, because this is a “sport” where you (your promoter actually) get to pick who you want to beat up next. Where you can wait it out until potential opponents who just might have a chance of beating you get old and infirm before you take the “risk”. Where, when it all eventually comes together and you get your ass handed to you, certain judges will hand the fight to you.